This week (10 July) we welcomed 65 students and 7 staff from School Number 54 in Tangshan, North East China to LHS. 33 of us in Years 9 and 10 acted as hosts and guides to the students. We did ice-breaker activities, competitions, tours of the school and we took them into our lessons. We also went on trips to Beamish, the school production in Whitley Bay and to Blyth Beach (for about 5 minutes because it rained so much – lovely British weather!). On Tuesday, we were taught some Mandarin and calligraphy by the Chinese students. On Wednesday, they put on a play for us and showed us some traditional dance – in return, we taught them all the Macarena! On the Monday evening, we took the Chinese students home or out for tea – the language barrier made this challenging but we managed to make good friends with each other. Some of us even met the Chinese students again after their visit to us was over, later this week, to go shopping in Newcastle. We had an absolutely fantastic time with the Chinese students. We have grown so much in confidence and we’ve really developed our organisation skills. Both we and the Chinese students were really sad to part company and we hope we get to see each other again one day!
